Aviadenovirus

VIRION

Non-enveloped capsid with a pseudo T=25 icosahedral symmetry. The capsid diameter is about 90 nm. The capsid shell consists of 720 hexon subunits arranged as 240 trimers and 12 vertex penton capsomers each with a fiber protruding from the surface.

GENOME

Non-segmented, linear double-stranded DNA of 35-36kb encoding about 40 proteins. The genome has terminally redundant sequences which have inverted terminal repetitions (ITR). The terminal protein (TP) is covalently attached to each end of the genome.

GENE EXPRESSION

Transcription is nuclear, in two phases; early (replication), late
(virion assembly). All genes are transcribed by host RNA pol II except virus-associated (VA) gene(s) of some fowl adenoviruses transcribed by RNA pol III. Genes transcribed by RNA pol II give rise to multiple mRNA that are produced by alternative splicing and use of different poly(A) sites.